Dumb Heroes, A Book of Poems for the Blue Cross Fund.
My Beautiful, Ballads of Field and Billet.
Horse-Bathing Parade, More Ballads of Field and Billet. Originally published in Glasgow News.
The Air Raid, Beaumont Bull, no. 1, 11 February 1918.
The Shell, From Field & Hospital. The poem is subscribed ‘Elverdinghe, April 1915’.
A Flemish Village, Spectator, vol. 116, no. 4574, 26 February 1916.
To Belgium, The Bukshee Ration.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN: AMERICA JOINS THE WAR
The Newt-ral, The War Men-agerie.
My American Cousins, Punch, vol. 152, 23 May 1917.
The American Advance, Songs from the Trenches.
Slacker, Think it Over!, ibid.
The Crusader, ibid. ‘Dieu le volt’ translates as ‘God wills it’, reputedly the words with which Pope Urban II called for the first Crusade in 1095.
To the Recruitin’ Sergeant, ibid.
Somewhere in France (1), ibid.
Somewhere, ibid.
Passed as Censored, ibid.
Der Tag, Comrades of the Mist. Originally published in Arkright, the weekly newsletter of the US ship Arkansas attached to the Sixth Battle Squadron of the Grand Fleet.
CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE FINAL YEAR
[How doth the little busy wife], War-Time Nursery Rhymes.
Chairman Rhymes, Daily Chronicle, nos 110 and 88, 27 and 1 February 1918.
Food Control, Gazette of the 3rd London General Hospital, vol. 4, no. 1, October 1918. The poem is signed ‘S.E.R.’. ‘Ole Clynes’ is John Clynes (1869–1949), who was Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Food in Lloyd George’s government.
Economy ad Insaniam, Punch, vol. 155, 25 September 1918.
The Soul of a Nation, ibid., vol. 154, 3 April 1918. The poem is dated 28 March 1918.
Watch and Pray!, Daily Chronicle, 29 March 1918. The poem is signed ‘S.L.’.
[What of our comrades in the forward post?], Sonnets from a Prison Camp. Bowman was taken prisoner during the March retreat – this is the ‘deeper woe’ at the end of the last sonnet. At the end of April and the beginning of May 1918 he wrote, in Rastatt prison camp, the two sequences of sonnets, ‘In the Field’ (I) and ‘The Nadir’ (I–IV, VII), from which these are taken.
During the Battle, Sorrow of War. The poem is dated March 1918.
The Tide, Punch, vol. 154, 8 May 1918. Reprinted in The Mudhook, vol. 1, no. 6, July 1918. Bernard Freyburg VC, DSO and three bars (1889–1963) was a hero of A.P. Herbert’s Hood Division in the Royal Naval Division. He had led the battalion’s attack at Beaucourt during the last days of the Battle of the Somme (see ‘Beaucourt Revisited’) and earned his VC for refusing to leave his men despite being severely wounded.
The German Graves, Punch, vol. 154, 27 March 1918. Ablain St Nazaire is north-west of Vimy.
The Turn of the Tide, The Poets in Picardy.
Victory Assured!, postcard in the Rare Book Department of the British Library.
When I Come Home, From an Outpost.
To Certain Persons, Ducks.
The Call, Punch, vol. 155, 21 August 1918. The poem is signed ‘C.F.S.’. BC is British Columbia.
Peace Problems, The Mudhook, vol. 2, no. 10, Peace Number 1919. The poem is subtitled ‘By the “Mudhook” Poet’ and signed ‘E.E.C.’. ‘C.B.’ probably has the double meaning of ‘Confined to Barracks’ and ‘Commander of the Bath’.
From a Full Heart, Punch, vol. 152, 2 May 1917.
The General, ibid., vol. 152, 18 April 1917.
Herr Hohenzollern, ibid., vol. 155, 18 December 1918. Hohenzollern was the dynastic name of Kaiser Wilhelm.
In Memory of Kaiser Bill (The Butcher), postcard, selling for one penny; l. 3 begins ‘Has booked . . .’.
Cousins German, Satire and Sentiment. Originally published in part in Parliamentary Debates.
CHAPTER TWENTY: ARMISTICE AND THE PRICE OF WAR
The Armistice, The Splendid Days.
Bacchanal, A Miscellany of Poetry – 1919.
For a Girl, The Splendid Days.
Tears, Wheels, 1916.
Victory, The Pageant of War.
To an Only Son, copied into a scrapbook in the Royal Air Force Museum (AC1997/127/50). The scrapbook was put together by Canon Philpott, whose son, Capt. J.R. Philpott, MC, enlisted into the 7th Suffolk Regiment and later transferred to the RFC. He was shot down near Baghdad, captured and died as a prisoner of war. The poem is signed ‘E.L.N.’ and dated January 1920.
The Return, A Miscellany of Poetry – 1919.
Peace – The Dead Speak, Ducks.
The Survivors, The Survivors. Originally published in The Sphere.
Who Won the War?, The Bukshee Ration. Marshall Foch (1851–1925), the French military leader, was created Allied Supreme commander in March 1918, with overall command of all the Allied forces.
The Offside Leader, Country Life, vol. 44, no. 1144, 7 December 1918.
To my Mate, The Nation, vol. 24, no. 15, 11 January 1919, where the poem was published anonymously. It was reprinted in Any Soldier to his Son in 1919, with some changes. ‘Pozzy’ is jam; the DC Medal is the Distinguished Conduct Medal.
Reconciliation, The Pageant of War.
The Reason, The Poetical Works. ‘Dummes Luder!’ translates as ‘Stupid creature!’
Peace, A Miscellany of Poetry – 1919.
Return, A Muse at Sea.
The Victory March, The Victory March.
The Unknown Warrior, The Unknown Warrior.
Unknown, The Poetical Works.
The War Memorial, New Statesman, vol. 14, no. 364, 3 April 1920.
Stranraer War Memorial, Galloway Advertiser and Wigtownshire Free Press, 7 April 1921. There was a dispute in the town about the location of the war memorial. Councillors wanted it to be within the Town Hall enclosure, but others thought it should be at The Cross, a commanding position at a busy junction of four of the town’s busy thoroughfares.
In Flanders, Poppies Red, postcard.
Only an Officer, The Poetical Works.
The Unemployed, The Nation and The Athenæum, vol. 32, no. 10, 9 December 1922.
In Memoriam, Galloway Advertiser and Wigtownshire Free Press, 21 July 1921; Burnley Express and Advertiser, 3 July 1920; Burnley Express and Advertiser, Saturday 3 July 1920; Accrington Observer and Times, 3 July 1920 (the same poem was inserted for Pte Eldred Towler, 1/5th East Lancashire Regiment, who fell in action, 6 November 1918, in the Accrington Observer and Times, 6 November 1920); Accrington Observer and Times, 13 November 1920; Galloway Advertiser and Wigstownshire Free Press, 16 June 1921; Accrington Observer and Times, Saturday, 13 November 1920.
The Cenotaph: Armistice Day, Liverpool Review, vol. 5, no. 12, December 1930.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE: THE RETURN TO FRANCE
The Battle-fields, The Nation and The Athenæum, vol. 31, no. 27, 30 September 1922. Reprinted in Poems of Five Decades with some changes.
The Menin Road, March 1919, The Menin Road.
The Wood, The Nation and The Athenæum, vol. 30, no. 22, 25 February 1922.
Behind the Line, The Nation, vol. 30, no. 6, 5 November 1921.
Somewhere in France (2), Spectator, vol. 115, no. 4552, 25 September 1915. Republished in The Highway of Hades. In the original publication lines 23–4 were omitted, ‘He’ in line 25 was not in italics, and there was no stanza break following line 26.
At Thiepval, Grapes of Thorns.
A Father at the Grave of his Son, Nineteenth Century, no. 513, November 1919.
Soldiers’ Headstones. Inscriptions on the headstones of Commonwealth War Grave Commission graves in France and Gallipoli.
Perfect Epilogue, The Tears of War.
Valete, Forty Poems.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: L’ENVOI
The Other Side, The Poetical Works, vol. 2. The Gaiety was a popular London theatre. A ‘five-nine’ (5.9) was a very destructive, much dreaded, German high-explosive shell. Alfred
Lester was a music hall and revue artist; Nelson Keys (1886–1939) was a stage and cinema actor.
Glossary
A.D.S. Advanced Dressing Station
A.E.F. American Expeditionary Force; some said that it stood for ‘After England Failed’
A.I.F. Australian Imperial Force
A.P.C. Army Pay Corps
après la guerre after the war, in army parlance meaning never
Archie anti-aircraft gun, said to be derived from the music-hall song ‘Archibald, certainly not’, because of the ineffectiveness of the early anti-aircraft gunnery efforts
A.S.C. Army Service Corps, otherwise know as Ally Sloper’s Cavalry after a children’s comic character
Batt. H.Q. Battalion Headquarters
B.E.F. British Expeditionary Force, particularly the first Seven Divisions sent to France in August 1914, known as the ‘Contemptible little army’
Blighty slang for England or home; also a wound that was serious enough for the injured soldier to be sent back to England
Bosch,Bosche or Boche French name for Germans, adopted by the British
bully tinned bullied beef
C.A.V.C. Canadian Army Veterinary Corps
C.B. Commander of the Bank
C.C.S. Casualty Clearing Station
chats lice
C.H.Q. Company Headquarters
C.O. Commanding Officer, also known as OC
crump any heavy shell, named from the sound it made when it burst on impact
C.T. communication trench
D.A.A. Director of Army Accounts
D.A.A.G. Deputy Assistant Adjutant General
Der Tag ‘The Day’, a pre-war German naval toast that looked forward to the destruction of the British Fleet; it was frequently cited by the British during the war as an example of German arrogance
Div. Division
D.O.R.A. Defence of the Realm Act
D.R.O. Divisional Routine Order
D.S.O. Distinguished Service Order
duckboard wooden slats laid along the bottom of the trenches
E.L.C. Egyptian Labour Corps
firestep the step built on the rear of the front wall of the trench, from which the men could see across no man’s land
F.O.O. Forward Observation Officer
F.P. Field Punishment
G.H.Q. General Headquarters
G.O.C. General Officer Commanding
G.R.C. Graves Registration Commission
H.A.C. Honourable Artillery Company
H.E. high explosive
H.L.I. Highland Light Infantry
H.M. His Majesty the King
Hun German
Jack Johnson heavy German shells that gave off a dense black smoke on exploding; named after the celebrated black American boxer
K.C.B. Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
M.A. Master of Arts
Maxims a type of machine gun
M.C. Military Cross
Mills the Mills bomb was a type of grenade
O.C. Officer Commanding
O.O. Orderly Officer, or Operational Order
O.T.C. Officer Training Corps
pavé shiny, ankle-turning roads of Belgium and northern France made of stone blocks, much disliked by the marching soldiers
P.B.I. poor bloody infantry
poilu meaning hairy, it was the universal name for the French soldier
P.O.W. prisoner of war
Q. or Q.M.G. Quartermaster General
Q.M.A.A.C. Queen Mary’s Army Auxiliary Corps
Q.M.S. Quartermaster Sergeant
R.E. Royal Engineers
R.F.A. Royal Field Artillery
R.F.C. Royal Flying Corps
R.M.L.I. Royal Marine Light Infantry
R.N.V.R. Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve
R.S.M. Regimental Sergeant Major
R.T.O. Railway Transport Officer
S.A.A. small arms ammunition
sapper Royal Engineer private
S.R.D. Service Rum Diluted; initials stamped on rum jars; the soldiers also called these Soon Run Dry and Seldom Reaches Destination
sub. subaltern; junior officer below the rank of Captain
T.M.B. trench mortar battery
T.N.T. tri-nitro toluene – explosive
Tommy British private soldier, from Tommy Atkins, the hypothetical name of the soldier required to sign the Soldier’s Account Book first issued in 1815
V.A.D. Voluntary Aid Detachment
V.C. Victoria Cross
Very light lights fired from special pistols that illuminated no man’s land and the enemy positions
Vickers a type of machine gun
whizz-bang a type of German field gun shell, named from the sounds it made as it approached and as it burst
Wilhelm The Kaiser
Wipers Ypres
Y.M.C.A. (Y.M.) Young Men’s Christian Association, which organised rest rooms for soldiers behind the lines
Zepp. Zeppelin airship, named after its inventor, Count Zeppelin
List of Authors and Illustrators
Many of the poems, particularly those written by private soldiers for ephemeral publications, were published anonymously.
Albert, E.
In a Tramcar
Alchin, Gordon (?1895–1947)
Worked under the pseudonym ‘Observer, RFC’. Commissioned into the Royal Field Artillery, 1914; transferred to the Royal Flying Corps, 1915; awarded the Air Force Cross; achieved rank of Captain. After the war, became a barrister and County Court Judge.
A Song of the Air
Reconnaissance
Two Pictures
Alington, C.A. (1872–1955)
Head Master of Eton, and later Dean of Durham.
The School at War – 1914
Amory, Harold
2nd Lieutenant 101st Machine Gun Bttn, AEF.
Passed as Censored
Anderson, Jessie Annie (b. 1861)
Before the outbreak of war she published ten volumes of poetry; her final volume was published in 1928.
For a Horse Flag Day
Armstrong, Martin (1882–1974)
Poet, novelist and short-story writer, whose first volume of poems was published in 1912. Volunteered in the Artists’ Rifles, 1914; commissioned into the 8th Bttn, Middlesex Regt, 1915.
Going up the Line
Asquith, Herbert (1881–1947)
Son of the British Prime Minister Herbert Asquith. Before the war, was a lawyer. Commissioned into the Royal Marine Artillery, 1914; transferred to the Royal Field Artillery; served in France but was invalided home with nervous strain, 1915; returned to the front before he was fully well and suffered the effects long after. After the war he did not return to the law but became a writer and publisher’s reader.
A Flemish Village
Ball, Clelland J.
Private in the Quartermaster Corps, AEF.
The American Advance
Beazley, Mary
The Sound of Flanders Guns
Bendall, Frederick William Duffield (1882–1953)
A schoolmaster before the war, he was in charge of his school OTC and a Captain in the TA. At the outbreak of war he was promoted temporary Lieutenant-Colonel in charge of the 3rd (Reserve) Bttn, City of London (Royal Fusiliers). He served in the Sudan, where he was OC British Troops, Gallipoli and France; he was wounded during the 3rd Battle of Ypres (Passchendaele), 1917; twice mentioned in dispatches; awarded CMG, 1918; promoted full Colonel, 1920.
R.A.F.
September 25th, 1916
The Blizzard
Bewsher, Paul (1894–1966)
Commissioned into the Royal Naval Air Service, 1915, transferring to the RAF in 1918; awarded the DSC.
Searchlights
Bigelow, Frank G.
CQM, USS Hinton.
You Never Can Tell
Bing, Harold F.
A conscientious objector who, in mid-1917, was serving his third sentence of imprisonment with hard labour.
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A Call from Prison
Boden, A.L.
The Cenotaph: Armistice Day
Borden, Mary (d. 1968)
Worked from 1914 to 1918 in military hospitals attached to the French Army; she stated that the events she described were experienced as part of her war service and that none was invented. In 1918 she married the soldier and military historian Edward (later Sir Edward) Spears.
The Song of the Mud
Bottomley, Gordon (1874–1948)
Georgian poet and playwright. A friend of Isaac Rosenberg, whose poems he edited for publication in
1922.
All Souls, 1914
Bourke, J.
In 1918 he held the rank of Lieutenant; he appears to have survived the war.
Ex Umbra
Bower, John Graham (1886–1985)
Worked under the pseudonym Klaxon. Served in the Royal Navy in the Somali War (1902–4), and throughout the First World War; he rose to the rank of commander; he was awarded the DSO in 1918, and mentioned in dispatches.
Low Visibility
To Fritz
Wet Ships
Bowman, Archibald Allan (1883–1936)
Before the war he was Professor of Logic at Princeton University; commissioned into the 13th Highland Light Infantry, September 1915; was captured during the Battle of Lys in April 1918, and was imprisoned at first at Rastatt then at Hesepe prison camps. In 1926 he became Professor of Moral Philosophy at Glasgow University.
Rastatt
Thoughts of Home
[What of our comrades in the forward post?]
Box, William (1903–87)
Too young to serve in the war, while still very young he volunteered after the war to help clear the battlefields, an experience that had a profound effect on him.
Valete
Brasher, Paul
Sub-Lieutenant in the Royal Naval Air Service; awarded the DSC. He appears to have survived the war.
The Dawn Patrol
Bretherton, Cyril H. (1878–1939)
Wrote for Punch under pseudonym ‘Algol’.
Oxford Revisited
Brown, John Lewis Crommelin (1888–1953)
Commissioned into the Royal Garrison Artillery (Special Reserve), December 1915; to France, February 1916; the following month was invalided home suffering from neurasthenia. Between May 1917 and July 1918 was an instructor in the Cadet School at Trowbridge; promoted Lieutenant, July 1917; sent to Salonika, August 1918. He played cricket for Derbyshire.
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